This is just my little space on the web to post my thoughts and comments. Sometimes stuff will be topical, sometimes I'll just throw in some old stuff I wrote. Sometimes it'll just be stream of consciousness and may not make much sense at all. Hey, it's mine and I can do what I want.
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Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Sometimes a crime is a crime is a crime

Craig Stephen Hicks is in jail under charges of murdering three residents of the apartment complex where he lives. The victims, Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, a dental student at UNC, his 21 yr. old recent graduate wife, Yusor Mohammad, and her 19 yr. old sister, N.C. State student Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, are Americans of Syrian ancestry and followers of Islam. Immediately people hearing of the killing of the defenseless young adults decried it as the act of an anti-Muslim. Then came word that Hicks is "an atheist" who hates all religion. And that is a problem because atheists don't "hate religion." They don't believe in a god. They don't hate that others do believe in gods, nor do they deny (or wish to deny) others that right. The fact is Hicks describes himself as an anti-theist. And there-in lies the difference. And a huge difference it is. Like the difference between John Smith not caring if you are a Catholic, or a Jew, or a Muslim, and John Smith HATING that about you to the point he is anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic, or anti-Muslim and lets that color how he treats (or mistreats) you, whether he patronizes your business, whether he bullies you, or worse. So taken at face value it would seem that Hicks is likely anti-Muslim. But that doesn't appear to be what triggered his rage. According to a report in the LA Times (and multiple other sources):

"Karen Hicks said she had been married to the suspect for seven years and denied that he had acted out of hatred.

“He believes everyone is equal,” she said at a televised news conference. “ It doesn’t matter what the person looks like.”

"I can say that it is my absolute belief that this incident had nothing to do with religion or the victim’s faith, but in fact was related to long-standing parking disputes my husband had with various neighbords(sic) regardless of their race, religion or creed,” she saiid."

Oh, that should make the victims' families feel much better. It wasn't that he was anti-Muslim (or any other faith, which though still murder at least makes it somewhat easier to understand, historically speaking) or anti-Syrian-American (again, historically speaking...), it was that they PARKED in HIS SPACE. Is that not part of a man's right to stand his ground? Is that not a legitimate defense of THREE POIINT-BLANK SHOTS TO THE HEAD KILLING THREE PEOPLE?

”He was very disgruntled, very aggressive. He would scream at people,’’ said Samantha Maness, 25, (neighbor) ... He made everyone feel uncomfortable and unsafe, ..."

Maness said she never heard Hicks refer to anyone’s religion or race.

“He had equal opportunity anger toward all the residents," she said.

Well, it's good to know he believes in equality. Now let's see if he believes in the death penalty.